What's Up with Tech?

How A Partner-Obsessed Model Turns Weeks Of Telco Quoting Into Minutes

• Evan Kirstel

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Your quoting process shouldn’t feel like a scavenger hunt. We sat down with GTT’s channel leaders to unpack how a partner-obsessed strategy and a new digital platform, Envision DX, shrink telco quoting from weeks to minutes while boosting transparency, accuracy, and partner ROI. The conversation gets practical fast: what it means to orchestrate sales, marketing, enablement, and product around outcomes; why legacy programs disintermediated partners; and how a modern model respects that MSPs, SIs, and advisors hold the strongest customer relationships.

We dive into the product innovations that make the difference. Envision DX is built around location-first design, live vendor pricing, on-net visibility, and side-by-side term comparisons. Large language models translate plain English into telco details, so partners don’t need to speak jargon to configure DIA, broadband, wireless, SD-WAN, SASE, or pro services. For multi-site deals, AI parses messy spreadsheets, validates addresses, and applies reusable templates, letting teams scale from two sites to hundreds with confidence. Digital twinning tests network designs before rollout, reducing risk and rework. Every step surfaces transparent choices, recommended equipment, and full costs—including install and shipping—so decisions are clear and fast.

The payoff shows up in the numbers: partners report 20%+ funnel growth and higher win rates driven by speed and clarity. Beyond quoting, the team focuses on lifecycle management and marketplace integrations, aiming to make network and security management fade into the background so customers can focus on revenue, cost control, and experience. If you’ve been waiting for telecom to feel more like cloud—self-serve workflows, real-time data, API-first integrations, and a clean UX—this conversation is proof it’s here.

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SPEAKER_01:

Hey everybody, really excited about this conversation today with GTT, the channel leads who are getting serious about upgrading the channel experience and uh giving the channel a you know an upgrade in general, something that's long overdue. We'll chat with GTT about how they rebuilt their partner program and how Envision DX is really changing the game for partners in the telecom networking space and beyond. Chris, Sarah, Laura, how are you?

SPEAKER_00:

Doing fantastic, Evan. Thanks for watching us.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thanks for being here. And Chris, we'll start with you. Um, you joined GTT within the last few years. Can you introduce yourself and how do you describe your role and what uh GTP is up to these days?

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely, Evan. My I am uh Chris Jones. I'm the national vice president of partner channels here at GTT. And I work with Sarah and the rest of the team to make sure that we are getting out to the indirect channels, whether it's the Agent Channel, the MSP channel, the SI channel, out into the alliances. How do we get out there and make sure that all the indirect programs and uh go-to-market motions that are out there are knowledgeable of what GTT is doing, how we're rebuilding, and really trying to get mind share across all channels.

SPEAKER_01:

Brilliant. And Sarah, you also joined within the last year. Uh share some info about your background and role and what you're focused on at GTT these days.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, hi, Sarah Seegers, uh, Senior Vice President of Channel and Partner Programs. Um, I can't believe it's a year. Uh, it has been fast and furious and fun. And really our job is to create a growth engine for GTT across all segments and verticals. And in working with Chris, um, it's really orchestration of the ecosystem. I think you hear that a lot in the market, but it becomes this partner-obsessed culture we've created at GTT across sales, marketing, enablement, product uh that's been really exciting. Um, it's bringing partner uh programs and enablement that really creates the return on investment for partners because the most valuable thing they have is time. And it's our lifecycle management that can create a most valuable partner experience in the marketplace.

SPEAKER_01:

Brilliant. And tell us right now, and in Q1, uh, what are you seeing right now as far as customer experience requirements and expectations in this pretty changing landscape?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it you know, AI and security have to be part of the conversation. And that really goes into the platforms we're creating and the programs. Um, enablement, it's self-serve tools, but also meeting our partners and their customers where they are, but also giving them the vision of what's possible. Um, collaboration. We always say feedback's a gift. And it's not to tell them what we're doing, but to go co-sell, co-innovate, and co-strategize with them. That is absolutely different when you talk about partner-friendly versus partner-obsessed companies. And I think GTT started from the ground to say, how are our partners thinking? And let's meet them there. Um, and then it really becomes customer-centric outcomes at the center of it all. There's too much focus on transactions versus outcomes, and we really have built an ecosystem to drive that.

SPEAKER_01:

Fantastic. And Chris, and I started in Telecom 35 years ago. All we talked about were agents, and they generally at that time were pagers and phone prepaid phone cards. So this is really going way back. But talk about the modern channel model and um how your new channel program is is differentiated from you know traditional legacy channel models.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I I think, Evan, I think about when I think about the channel and I think about the history of the channel, right? So much of it was big suppliers trying to attach themselves to a partner that might have had a relationship with the customer, but it wasn't really a win-win relationship. It was kind of a supplier view, it almost milk, I don't want to say milking the relationship the the advisor had with the customer, but they they were milking it, right? And it was a very kind of one-sided relationship. And suppliers wanted the partner to introduce them to the customer and then kind of get out of the way. And and suppliers were all about kind of taking that relationship and disintermediating the partner from the customer. I think modern channels and modern channel programs need to realize that partners have better relationships with customers than a lot of suppliers do. And there are a lot of partners that have those relationships, right? There are research shows there are at least seven customers or seven partners working with every customer. So it's up to suppliers to make sure that they're building programs that are win-win so that a partner or advisor can wants to bring their customer to a supplier, and that there's mutual benefit over the long haul. And so part of what we've been trying to do at GTT is build program, build a program that is mutually beneficial to both GTT and to the partner so that we together can do what's right for the customer and and have more upside win over the long run.

SPEAKER_01:

Brilliant win-win. And Chris, I mean, quoting has always been slow, complicated in this industry, archaic. Uh some would say, how do you Envision Envision DX, pun intended there, will simplify this process.

SPEAKER_02:

I think I think Envision is doing a couple things for us in the quoting process, right? There's a lot of people that are trying to improve the quoting process, but and it's really the quoting process as it has to do with last mile connectivity. Um, there's not as many uh tools that you hear about out there that are doing last mile, that are doing edge, that are doing security, that also then live into the lifecycle management of how the supplier engages with that customer and partner for the long run. And I think what we're doing with Envision is taking some of the things that you've seen other suppliers do around the upfront quoting process, but taking the entire life cycle. We live in a world where we're used to being able to interact with marketplaces and portals to do everything. And in our world, I don't know why we we haven't been able to do that, right? The other thing that Envision does that's so great is because we're using large language models that we've built here at GTT, we're also able to sort of let customers and partners talk in English and let our tool do the translation into telco because most normal people don't speak telco. Um, and it's important now to leverage technology to sort of do that translation and really make the experience of working with GTT that much easier.

SPEAKER_01:

Brilliant. And Sarah, what's been some of the feedback you're seeing with partners? It's something you're building together with the channel. What's been their feedback and uh how are they involved in the process?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, Evan, you just said something. The validation in the marketplace is all we measure. It is how is it resonating? And I'll be honest, without giving exact stats, you know, 20% plus growth and funnel as well as growth in wins, but then also the win rate because we care about the return on investment for partners and it's the tools, the enablement, the AI insights that have been most impactful. Um, a lot of people talk about a portal. I can tell you we've created a platform, again, that meets the partners and the clients where they are, but really puts them on the journey, as Chris spoke, to where they could see as possible from simplifying complex decisions of global connectivity to security to technology partners we bring to the table. And then really at the end of the day, it's the orchestration of all that, the life cycle after the sale that really matters and brings the great value. And that's what we continue to hear from our partners that we're showing up different. And you'll hear this one of one, and I truly believe we are one of one as a global provider, um, but also where we aggregate access options across the world. Um, and that's been a really fun journey and it's resonating very well with our partners.

SPEAKER_01:

Fantastic. Um, what are some of the key features, Chris, that uh you think will simplify this process? Obviously, we're gonna do a demo, and there's a lot of features behind the scenes, but you talk about simplification, quoting being slow, complicated. What does that new workflow look like?

SPEAKER_02:

I I think, Evan, one of the things that um, and Laura's gonna talk about this, I'm sure, in great detail, but historically, when people looked at a customer, they kind of looked at it at a macro level and it cascaded down to various locations. One of the things that Envision has done is it's really looking at location types and it starts at a location and it the process of how you build out a customer network, we've kind of turned it on its head and it focuses on locations and then builds up from there. I think the other thing that's really nice that the team has done is you know, they're leveraging AI, they're leveraging the knowledge that we have, and they're really making the process that much easier in terms of how you build out a network. They're even using AI, they're able to do sort of twinning, digital twinning, so they can test something that says, if this is what you're designing, let's let's use AI to see if this model is gonna work, this network design is gonna work before you roll it out and take something out.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that's phenomenal. And um, you you've already seen the impact in the market, Sarah. Uh, maybe give us some real world feedback on the ground from the field, what's been the impact on growth and revenue and all that good stuff?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we flipped tradition on its side. And we started with our program, how we contract with our partners, allowing them to transact with us how they want to and how their clients want to. And I think you heard Chris say it's opened other routes to market. Um, you said something, the tradition of agent years ago now becomes MSP, MSSP, the bars, the SIs. Um, that's making where the magic happens, where sometimes people didn't think about network, but it drives AI, it drives, you know, the growth in data centers. And that this has put all of that together in the orchestration and envision is the heart and soul and the foundation of all of that.

SPEAKER_01:

Brilliant. Well, I can't wait to take a look. Why don't we um go to Laura? You've been very quiet. So I I'll uh introduce yourself perhaps and what does digital experience mean uh exactly at GTT?

SPEAKER_04:

Awesome. Thank you. Hi everyone, I'm Laura Lehman. I'm the director of digital experience product management here at GTT. And we have been really, really focused on how can we work for our users. So our internal users, our customers, and of course our channel partners around how do we make their experience with us easier? How do we simplify it? How do we automate that experience to speed it up? And then how do we differentiate it, right? Differentiate ourselves to add that value. And I think that's what you're gonna see in our new Envision DX coding and ordering experience.

SPEAKER_01:

Great. So what what should we pay attention to when it comes to uh you know a screen like this or a demo in general when they're actually getting their hands on Envision DX? What can they expect?

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely. So what our channel partners can expect is transparency, right? We have taken a lot of work and a lot of effort to make sure that we give our channel partners and our users all the information that they need. We are not hiding things, we're not using complicated terms. We are really, really focused on giving you all the options so that you can pick the best solution and work with us at GTT to find that best solution that is there for you. So, a key point, you know, I just always like to say this is a collaborative tool, right? So not only is it collaborative in the sense that our channel teams can work with the GTT teams live, real time in this tool, but we've also been collaborating in terms of co-creating. So we have been working with all of our partners, hearing, you know, from them what are their pain points, what are their issues, how can we help promote and give them a tool that will make their lives easier? And Envision GX is kind of that first stage of part of the answer to that, right? In conjunction with uh Sarah and Chris and all the work that they're doing. We just want to support them in that. And so this is an example of if you were going in as a channel partner, you could see a list of different quotes, uh, different orders that you have done, right, for a single site or for a multi-site. I'll be able to show you a little bit of both and kind of get that at a glance view of what's happening. So, for example, the address, location, kind of any tags that you want, as well as the services you've quoted, the pricing and terms, right? And at a glance, you can click through and see the difference between a 12-month, 24-month, 36-month term if needed. And of course, you can go in, create a brand new quote, or view and edit one of those quotes yourself. So, you know, I'd love to take you through a single site quote and then also show you some of the really cool things we're doing with multi-site.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure.

SPEAKER_04:

Awesome. All right. So clicking in to view this quote that I have already pulled up, you can see here we've got quite a bit of information, right? So we've got this full view, and this by itself can be sent out to the end customer, uh, can can keep going through to the channel partner. They will be in here. We can be in here as GTT as well, and all of this information, live pricing, live vendor information, all in one spot, right? So I'll run you through it really quickly. Going into that address place. I just picked a location in Pennsylvania. You can see we've got it validated. You can see we've got the lat and long, and you can see we have the map view here. And this was really, really, really critical from what we were hearing from our channel partners is being able to visually see the site address because that causes so many problems for them, right? They think it's an address, it might be somewhere different. Being able to see that and show that is great. Yeah, as well as being able to grab and drag and drop, which changes the Latin long to get you the most accurate pricing. Coming on through, you can see we verify addresses through multiple different ways. All you really need is an address, and you can kind of get going. You can go through, you've got, you see, we've selected this DIA, we've got the price, we've got the speeds. Also show the available vendors. So you can see here, fully transparent, fully available. Here are our vendors, here is the pricing. And you can select which vendor you want to go with. We also let you know if they are on net or off net, preferred or non-preferred, all the details that really work with that kind of transparency, that focus to be able to let our channel partners pick the best options for them.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_04:

We can see we've also got some wireless options. They can add in broadband, um, lots and lots of different information here. They can go through and select different services that are available. So they can add an SD-WAN or for example, remove that, and you can see the pricing change based on my selection. They can add in professional services, select that, and you can see that the pricing goes through and changes in real time live for them. Um and they can go through and add their equipment. And based on what they've selected in terms of services, connectivity, we will recommend the best equipment choice. And if they want, they can always select something different, right? Reducing errors, giving that visibility, letting them know exactly what they're getting, exactly what's included with this, and for exactly how much. So, really, really exciting for us to be able to give them that option. We're able to show, you know, the installation, shipping, and handling, all of those components. And this is where you can see I had already selected 24 and 36 months terms, and these can be compared. So 36, 24, check the difference in pricing and kind of go from there. So, all in, you know, just under a few minutes, they can have full pricing and place an order with us for any sort of location that they're looking for. One other thing, yeah. I will close this out and go back and take a look at our multi-site. There we go. Sorry, just give me a second. My uh my internet's having a lot of fun today. We are quite in a snowstorm.

SPEAKER_01:

I know. I'm surprised we're all here. Actually, we're all stuck at home, so it's good.

SPEAKER_04:

Exactly. There you go. Um, and so you can see here we have this multi-version. So we've got single or multi. We can go in to get the full details. I've already popped in two sites just to give you an example, but we can go through and we can add in additional locations. So, say a channel partner wants to get started, they want to price some of their components, they need to add additional sites later. They can always close and come back to this. We're giving them that flexibility, giving them that full transparency around what they're looking for. We can do, you know, hundreds of sites through this. They can type in copy and paste addresses, or they can go through and um upload a file. In this case, I'll just upload a uh small address sample. You'll be able to see when it pops in. And we'll just submit it, right? And so what will happen is I just uploaded a general basic Excel sheet. No formatting, uh, no template, uh, a whole bunch of like extraneous information in there that isn't actually fully always necessary. And it will are we're using our our AI, our LLM to go through and pull out the actual addresses in there so we can get those going a lot faster, right? We hear a lot of pain points around, oh my goodness, you know, I've I I've put it, I've put my addresses in this template, but it's not working because I didn't put it in exactly right. I've made some spaces, I've added some periods, it's not working. Um in that case, this kind of takes away all of that pain. And so you can see we've added, we've uh validated those addresses and we're just pulling pricing. And what we're actually doing is we've got multiple vendor APIs, and so we are pulling pricing directly from our suppliers as well as from hundreds of other suppliers that we had just have pricing from. So we're really bringing all of that in to give them that full transparency. Um so as that runs, I'll give you an example as well here in that multi-site. You can set up specific templates. So if you know as a channel partner that you quote the same thing kind of over and over because you have one way you like to do it and that's the way you want to go about it, you can set up those templates and just enter these addresses in and we will just match, right? You can say, I want a hundred meg DIA with wireless and an envision edge device. No problem. We will pop, we will run all of that pricing for you and give it to you in, you know, depending on how many sites. If you've got a couple hundred sites, it might take five, 10 minutes. Um, but we'll give that to you pretty much right away. And then you can always select into those specific addresses, specific sites, and change them. So in this case, you can see here we're starting to start to get more of that pricing come through. I can edit this particular site. It brings up all that information you saw previously. I can add additional labels, I can adjust the site address, I can go into the connectivity tab, I can move my speeds up and down, I can change the vendor. Um, you know, I can add in, okay, for this particular location, I actually don't need wireless. So I can take that out and remove it, which will reprice all of the options. I can go through, see my equipment, remove equipment, adjust. So lots and lots of different available options for our channel partners to use our tools and to get that price and get that order through right away because that is the thing that we hear so often is you know, we want to work with you guys, we just want it easy. We want it simple, we want to be able to do it ourselves, and we want to be able to close business. And that's what we are hopefully enabling.

SPEAKER_01:

Brilliant. And uh, you know, when I used to generate uh uh bids and proposals and respond to RFIs, RFQs, RFPs, it could take days, weeks to put together this kind of information. And it's amazing the industry is is still a bit stuck in that era, is it not? Or am I maybe misremembering how difficult it was, uh Sarah or Chris?

SPEAKER_00:

I I think what you said, yeah, we've now taken days and weeks and made it minutes. And literally innovation in the transparency, I think what Laura just presented epitomizes how we're thinking of partners and how we want to make complex simple. And Laura, uh Envision really is that platform that brings it all together.

SPEAKER_01:

Fantastic. And Chris, you know, we're not even talking about the network innovation that you guys are up to. Um, it sounds like this is is hiding a lot of that complexity, whether it's security and SD WAN, SASE, and all kinds of other magic that you're doing, but delivering in a fashion that's uh really accessible.

SPEAKER_02:

I I think, Evan, one of the things that we're doing at GTT and and kind of what Laura just showed from an Envision DX perspective, we're doing that almost to the whole network and the entire management of the network, right? So many suppliers have made managing network, managing the edge, managing security. Like this becomes their full time job, and that's not what they want to do for a living. That's not how they make money. And what we're actually trying to do is make managing network secondary, right? We want to make it something that customers don't think about because the more they think about GTT, the more they're not focused on their primary focus. Focus, which is how do they make money, right? How do they grow revenue? How do they cut expense? How do they improve customer experience? Generally, micromanaging their network, their underlying network is not a part of it. And so if we can make managing the network, managing the endpoints, managing employees, managing locations simple, then we become the default that they want to work with, and they can spend their time focusing on doing what they want to do, which is growing their businesses. And that's what Laura and the team have done is so great. It's let's talk in customer language, not in telco language. Let's take all of the complexity out of this. There's no reason for us to turn this into like putting a man on the moon. This is this is basic stuff, and we need to make it as simple and not make it top of mind for a customer on a daily basis. And I think that's what makes things good for GTT. That's what makes things good for the customer in the long run. And ultimately, then partners want to work with suppliers who remove all the friction and take care of their customers.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And it's amazing how some industries have embraced this outside of telecom. Some might say, well, this is best practice, standard practice for our cloud or our hyperscaler. But now it's coming via Envision DX and GTP. So it's really amazing to see this in practice. And Sarah, you're getting the word out, the new and existing partners, what are you excited about over the next weeks, months with a lot going on in the industry, meetups and events and otherwise? What uh what are you looking forward to?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it is this activates and brings partners to us. It is when they experience this, it actually creates the activation immediately. These they they see the return on investment and it becomes all partner types in the multiple roles to market. It also becomes how Laura and team API into their marketplace. So we are hyper-focused on envision, but then also activating their marketplaces via cloud, be it security. So uh it is foundational. And it when you wrap that with a partner access culture in the customer experience and the partner experience, it really becomes a return on investment that I don't think it others can match.

SPEAKER_01:

Brilliant. Well, that was kind of a mic drop moment, but before I drop the mic, any any other comments, Laura or or Chris, before we uh wrap this up. I think we sent it all.

SPEAKER_02:

Kevin, thank you. Thank you for having us. I apologize for cutting you off there.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks for being here. Really exciting. Yeah, and can't wait to see this not only in action in the field, but also at different events. And I'll add some comments on where you can meet TTT and myself over the next weeks and months. Uh, so many uh fascinating venues coming up. Uh I'll be in Barcelona in a month. But uh beyond that, look forward to seeing you uh live, in person, face to face. Thanks, guys. Thanks everyone.

SPEAKER_00:

Pleasure, Evan. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

And thanks everyone for you know sharing this episode. Also check out our TV show at techimpact.tv on Fox Business and Bloomberg. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, guys.